DREAMS, reveal past, present, futureDREAMS, reveal past, present, future
The Threefold Nature of Dreams
by Teresa Padilla
Dreams can relate to the past, present and future. Learning what your dreams mean will reveal the past, accelerate your present understanding and shed light upon the future.
How do dreams reveal the past? Many people have dreamt of other lifetimes. How can this be? Does reincarnation really exist? Are we connected in some way to every soul who has existed and who presently exists through our dreams? These questions can be answered through our experience and understanding of dreams.
Although any dream is first and foremost significant to the present, this form of dream can offer knowledge of who you are as a soul. One time I was dreaming that I was in a place I had never been, this lifetime. There were many sacred temples nestled amongst rolling hills. On these temples were symbols that were foreign to me. From these symbols I could decipher the use of the sacred temple.
As far as the significance of this dream to the present, temples represent places in mind where you give your spiritual attention. The symbols represent communication that is available to me. In the dream, these symbols or (communication) helped me to know the use of the sacred temples or (place in mind where I give spiritual attention). These temples were made out of stone which represents your will or ability to make choices.
This dream was telling me that there is communication available to me. Even though this communication is somewhat foreign to me or not natural to me, it would help me to understand and have more purpose for the choices in my life. This interpretation helped me at the time reveal my purpose for my spiritual exercises I was applying in my day to day life.
Later to my surprise, I found the very same symbols in my dream in a book on Egypt that I was reading to my daughter, Briana. This dream helped me to think more seriously about the idea of reincarnation. Most of all it gave me an experience with being connected to a much greater whole than I was aware of before.
This experience helped me to confirm thoughts that I had when I was younger. I experienced strong attractions to anything Egyptian. I seemed to know the history of Egypt even though I had never learned it prior to these experiences. I can recall many people whom I have met that seemed connected to other cultures, other time periods and who have formed instant bonds with others. I have found out since, that we are all connected in mind. This is our common heritage or home. This sojourn in this earthly school room is for our learning and growth to learn to be compatible to our original source or Maker. We have many different names for this. Still one source exists. Still our minds are connected in the midst of all our divisions and diversions on earth.
Others have used dreams as a form of therapy, helping to remember what occurred in the past, that they for whatever reasons blocked out in the present. Our dreams are connected to us as a soul. The experiences of our whole self reside in the memory of the soul. In this way, dreams become our best friends helping us recall what we have covered up in the physical. Maybe we thought we weren’t quite ready or capable of handling this situation in our lives. The dream message, just like our best friend, shares truth so we can live fully in the present. One of my students wanted deep down to become a teacher. He didn’t think he was capable though. So he was putting this desire on hold. He then had a dream where someone told him to become a teacher. That very week of having this dream, he shared with me his desire to teach.
Now you could just interpret this dream physically and use it as motivation to do what you’ve always wanted to do. However, this dream has more significance to the dreamer. People represent aspects of the dreamer. In this dream, there was a person or (aspect of the dreamer) that told him to become a teacher. Teacher is an aspect of yourself as well. It represents an aspect that has authority. Authority is built on experiences that have been made a permanent part of the whole Self. We build these experiences in our earthly schoolroom. This higher part of the Self was communicating to the dreamer. He needed to build his authority, come from this own experiences and what he knows to be true and live this. This student was finally ready to receive truth into his life that concerned his next step in his soul growth. Therefore, he immediately acted upon this dream in his life. This truth changed his life dramatically as well as many lives along the way.
I have known quite a few people who have healed past associations through dreams. There was a lady who was having much turmoil in her life. She had regrets with her mom who had died several years earlier. One night she had a dream where her mom was there in flowing white robes, long golden hair and a very youthful face. Her mom did not move her mouth, yet Wendy was communicating with her. Her mom was telling her it was o.k. She needed to go on with her life. Wendy asked me what this dream meant. I interpreted the dream as it relates to the whole self. Her mom represented her higher self or conscience. She was telepathically receiving communication from this higher self as to her progression. Also, since her mom was not moving her mouth in the dream, more than likely this was the spirit of her mother coming to her letting her know she was o.k. Now Wendy had a new sense of freedom. She had something to move forward to which was this glorious communication with her higher self. This dream helped Wendy to release her guilt associated from the past so she could live in the present. This was a form of healing to Wendy at this time. She had been stuck, now she had freedom!
How do dreams accelerate the present? Every dream is communication from your whole self. All of your past and present experiences are assimilated or brought up to date each night in your dreams. It is a kind of organizational process of all our experiences and understandings. When this message is assimilated waves begin. These waves are your vibration emanating forth. This vibration is echoed throughout your mind and brain. When you awake, the pituitary interprets the vibratory impulses into pictures that we receive in the form of our dream. This last process is similar to an echo chamber. Each dream is an assessment of where we are in our present state of thinking and growth. If we have a tendency to disregard this message that does tell us that we are giving little attention to our quality of thoughts and growth as a soul. Through learning to heed this inner communication we can accelerate and move forward rapidly in awareness. We become better reasoners, thinkers and even visionaries.
I once had an experience that helped someone very dear to me die with peace. I was asleep. As I was waking up, I heard a voice, “Tell Ernie to come see me now.” The voice that I heard was Ernie’s dad. Ernie was my husband. Ernies’ dad was dying of cancer. I knew that this was indeed his dad communicating with me the best way he knew how. I told Ernie what I experienced. He went to see him immediately. He went in and talked to his dad. His dad had a lot to say. The rest of the family was shocked that his dad had talked so much. Prior to Ernie’s visit, his dad was not speaking to anyone. Ernie had found out that the family was pampering his dads every need night and day. His dad just wanted someone to be with him and talk to him rather than fuss over him all the time. So he had shut up. This experience helped Ernie’s dad die gracefully. He did have some things that he wanted to say and put at ease before he died and he knew his son would be able to help him.
There have been many inventors who have called upon dreams to give answers or solutions. Thomas Edison was one such inventor. He would tie a key to a string that he attached to his wrist. He would hold the key in his hand and close his hand. Then he posed a question to his inner mind. The next step was sleep. When he was asleep for awhile, the key would fall out of his hand into a metal pan beside him. This would promptly awake him. He oftentimes had his answer immediately.
Nicholas Tesla also was an inventor that heeded his dreams. He had a dream experience when he was sixty years of age. “I close my eyes, I invariably observe first, a background of very dark and uniform blue, not unlike the sky on a clear but starless night. In a few seconds this field becomes animated with innumerable scintillating flakes of green arranged in several layers and advancing towards me. Then there appears, to the right, a beautiful pattern of two systems of parallel”, Tesla describes. Telsa was describing in this experience, in which he was lucid, energy as it exists moving into mind or the inner levels of consciousness. This attention to the present moment helped Telsa be a visionary and help humanity. Giving attention to his dreams helped him to unlock and reveal creation. He manifested this genius through the Tesla coil, radio broadcast and such inventions now available to mankind.
Astronauts and prisoners both experimented with dreams and sleep for their sanity. They called upon dreams in times of being alone for long durations. They discovered if they caused themselves to sleep and therefore go into a dream state, their mind would be refreshed and at ease upon awakening. Dreams helped them have perspective in life and to have life itself. Dreams give us a sense of a new day dawning each time we wake up. In essence, each day is a new beginning. We have the chance to begin anew, not start over, but add to. We as souls and spirit are whole and complete. It is our awareness of who we are that needs to be expanded upon. It is our young conscious mind that needs to be educated and liberated from the bondage of our prejudices and limitations. As soul and spirit, we have no limitations or barriers. This is seen by many of the experiences shared thus far. We are able to achieve anything we can imagine and are willing to invest ourselves in. We are made in the likeness and IMAGE of our Creator. Some of us may call this Creator Brahman, some God, some Eternal Source or Divine Being. There are many names for the same source. What is common is our heritage and that we all have the same capabilities. None of us are the chosen ones rather all of us are chosen to follow this same heritage. We all have the choice to understand our dreams and how they are significant to us and humanity.
I am presently teaching my daughter Briana to interpret her dreams and apply the valuable insight. At eleven years of age, she is becoming more aware of who she is and building security within. This is extremely important during adolescence. This is the cycle of growth in which we have an inner urge to mature and be a creator ourselves. We seek more responsibility and independence. It is important that the motivation becomes initiated by the self at this time. The adolescent begins to discern what is productive for the self and others. Therefore becoming willing to offer and live this productivity. If the adolescent has received plenty of love and nourishment during infancy and has been taught to reason relying more and more on innate abilities and what is good and true, motivation is natural and free. It is a freedom of expression that is raw and beautiful.
How do dreams shed light upon the future? We have said earlier that dreams reveal truth. Truth always sheds light. The phrase, ‘the truth shall set you free’ is accurate. Harriet Tubman had a dream of an underground tunnel. She awakened with an answer to freeing the slaves. Abraham Lincoln dreamt of his death just prior to his death in the physical. Just imagine how history would be changed if he had known the meaning of his dream and the significance of it.
When we use dreams to recall what can be used effectively in the present and for the benefit of all, this thinking becomes prophetic, visionary, and transcendent. Thus, Joseph in the Holy Bible was a prophet. He interpreted dreams for many. Many benefited from this interpretation. Visionaries endeavor to use the past or memory productively by recalling that which is applicable to the present. This thinking is then expanded upon or added to relating what can be productive for all. This in turn gives our life more meaning. This is the essence of purpose giving us reason to exist. We realize this through giving to all. Yes, we must initiate ways to give of ourselves to more and more of humanity. The key is to continue to give more and to include more. As we do this, our universe is opened up to us. Visions are revealed.
©2002 School of Metaphysics